Pirate Exhibition

The pirate exhibition at Baltimore Castle explores the history of piracy and maritime activities in the West Cork coastal region of Baltimore and Roaring Water Bay. It tells tales of plunder and retaliation between the O'Driscoll clan and their longstanding rivals from Waterford. It is a story of local rivalry, enforced imposition of taxes and the regular plundering of cargoes of wine and luxury goods. The exhibition provides a detailed account of the raid known as 'The Sack of Baltimore' in 1631, in which Algerian corsairs arrived in the middle of the night and took 107 Baltimore inhabitants back to their waiting ships, and transported them to a life of slavery in north Africa.

Enter into the world of piracy, which existed on Ireland's southern coast from the middle ages to the seventeenth century. Stand on the battlements and gaze on the spot where the pirates landed. Experience the devastation of the inhabitants, who were torn from their beds that fateful night in 1631, in the only land attack by Mediterranean corsairs ever to take place on Irish soil.